Steven Johnson

All of us live inside our own private versions of the adjacent possible

the edges of possibility

This can be as simple as

the physical environment

innovative environments are better at helping their inhabitants explore the adjacent possible, because they expose a wide and diverse sample of spare parts—mechanical or conceptual—and they encourage novel ways of recombining those parts.

the current state

There’s a famous moment in

The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.

A good idea is a network

This is true whether